Copyright owners, Webcasters and radio broadcasters announced May...

Copyright Office, the groups -- which include RIAA, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the American Federation of TV & Radio Artists, the Digital Media Assn. (DiMA), Music Choice, Bonneville International Corp., Clear Channel, the National Religious Bcstrs. Music License Committee, Salem Communications and Susquehanna Radio -- said they had settled their dispute over fees and asked the office to amend proposals submitted last month. If approved, the agreement will allow nonsubscription services other than business establishment services to choose between: (1) An option of 0.0762 cents per performance for all digital audio transmissions, excluding 4% of performances to approximate the number of partial performances of nominal duration made due to, for example, technical interruptions. (2) An aggregate tuning hour option, under which licensees would pay 0.0762 cents for nonmusic programming such as news, talk and sports; 0.88 cents for broadcast simulcasts; or 1.17 cents for programming other than simulcasts and nonmusic programming. Subscription services would be permitted to choose either of those options or a percentage of subscription service revenue option of 10.9% of revenue but no less than 27 cents per month per person who subscribed to the service for all or part of a month. Business establishment services would pay for ephemeral recordings at a rate of 10% of their gross proceeds derived from the use in their service of musical programs attributable to copyrighted recordings. The groups asked the Copyright Office to stay the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel proceeding in the matter involving commercial entities, saying a stay would “achieve the congressional objective of facilitating voluntary settlements rather than hindering their implementation.” The royalty rates set out in last week’s filing are the same as those reached last month with DiMA, RIAA Senior Vp-Business Affairs Steven Marks said. The new agreement differs from the earlier one primarily in that it now includes rates not only for Webcasters but also for broadcasters and background music services -- with which agreement was reached only in the last week or so, Marks said.